SONNET 87

Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,
And like enough thou know'st thy estimate:
The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;
My bonds in thee are all determinate.
For how do I hold thee but by thy granting?
And for that riches where is my deserving?
The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,
And so my patent back again is swerving.
Thyself thou gavest, thy own worth then not knowing,
Or me, to whom thou gav'st it, else mistaking;
So thy great gift, upon misprision growing,
Comes home again, on better judgment making.
Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter,
In sleep a king, but waking no such matter.

NOTES

LXXXVII. Shakespeare, piqued apparently because Mr. W. H. will not renounce the rival-poet, utters a farewell. Mr. W. H.'s favour and patronage had been granted only during pleasure; so that there was no ground for complaint in their recall; but the poet is as one awaking from a dream. This "farewell" is probably intended, like Ophelia's return of Hamlet's "remembrances," to evoke a renewed avowal of affection.

2. Thy estimate. The value at which thou art to be appraised.

3. The charter of thy worth. The charter by which thy worth was ceded
to me.

A Look at Metaphors ... "Metaphors are of two kinds, viz. Radical, when a word or root of some general meaning is employed with reference to diverse objects on account of an idea of some similarity between them, just as the adjective 'dull' is used with reference to light, edged tools, polished surfaces, colours, sounds, pains, wits, and social functions; and Poetical, where a word of specialized use in a certain context is used in another context in which it is literally inappropriate, through some similarity in function or relation, as 'the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune', where 'slings' and 'arrows', words of specialized meaning in the context of ballistics, are transferred to a context of fortune." Percival Vivian. Read on...